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TORONTO — New spots on the skin or moles that change shape, size or colour are traditionally warning signs of skin cancer risk. But new U.S. research is shedding light on a potential link to breast cancer.

Scientists from Harvard University suggest that women with a greater number of moles are more likely to develop breast cancer. Their findings are based on two separate studies that followed nearly 165,000 women over the course of about two decades.

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But does this mean that skin spots should be a screening for breast cancer? Canadian doctors say it’s too early to recommend any changes in clinical settings.

“The risk of moles with skin cancer is much, much higher than what they’re seeing with breast cancer. It’s interesting and needs to be further studied,” Dr. Lisa Martin, a Princess Margaret Cancer Centre scientist, told Global News.

“But if there’s advice: I wouldn’t change anything, the guidelines for breast cancer screening will hold. I wouldn’t right away say moles are going to be used in screening in other types of cancer,” Martin said.

If the women self-assessed that they had a lot of moles on their body, their risk of breast cancer increased. Take, for example, the U.S. cohort – women who counted 15 or more moles on their left arm were 35 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than women who reported no spots. In the French grouping, women who said they had “very many” moles had a 13 per cent higher breast cancer risk than women without any moles.

But keep in mind: the link wasn’t as significant after adjusting for known breast cancer risk factors, such as family history.

The study authors concede, though: the findings are limited to self-reporting, it was only based on white women, and while the number of moles could be a marker for breast cancer, it’s hard to tell how it would stack up against other established risk factors already used.

“Most moles are harmless, but a person who has many moles is more likely to develop melanoma,” he told Global News.

Moles indicate changes in melanocytes, which are the melanin-producing cells in the skin that give skin, hair and eyes their colour. On the other hand, breast cancer arises from a different kind of cell with sex hormones, such as estrogen, playing important roles in the development of the cancer, De explained.

“Until the underlying mechanism between moles, sex hormones, and breast cancer is better known, we should only rely on the number of moles as an indicator of skin cancer risk,” De said.